Cameroonian woman en route to winning most prestigious French literary prize

By Tata Mbunwe

Cameronian-born woman, Djaili Amadou Amal is likely to win this year’s Goncourt Prize, the most prestigious French literary prize.

The winner of the prize will be declared by midday today in Douala.

Among the four finalists, Djaili Amadou is the only African and his book, LES IMPATIENTES, has been deemed more contemporary than those of the three other contestants.

“Apart from Djaili Amadou Amal’s novel, the others are really fiction, but without taking into account the problems that French society has been able to spot since the last Goncourt. There could have been a book on the end of the empire American, you see, major themes that really affect French society, ” said Didier Decoin, President of Goncourt, in an interview with a French broadcaster.

In her novel, Djaili highlights issues of rape, marginalisation of women, religious dogmatism against women and women’s submission to men.
Les impatientes”, by Djaïli Amadou Amal: a novel “punch” against obscurantism and submission to men
The novel is “one of the great current feathers of Africa, which carries the voice of women victims of violence, forced marriages, excision, rape … We did not necessarily expect it at Goncourt, but his book, Les impatientes, which tells the story of three of these women and their fight for freedom takes the reader to the guts, without concession, but without voyeurism,” writes French TV on its website frenchtvinfo.fr.

According to Goncourt President Didier Decoin, “Djaïli Amadou Amal’s book is poignant, because it’s a true story, it’s something that happens to a lot of women.”

The book is in the Goncourt Prize contest alongside three other books by foreign French writers, among them L’anomalie de Hervé written by Tellier ( edited by Gallimard); L’historiographe du Royaume written by Maël Renouard (edited by Grasset); and Thésée, sa vie nouvelle written by Camille de Toledo